Few of us ever really bat an eye if we get a scratch or two on our smartphone's screen. The real heartbreaker is when the phone is accidentally dropped or knocked off a table and the screen shatters, leaving it completely unusable. It's a fate many of us have experienced before, and one that Corning now claims we'll experience less often with the company's new stronger Gorilla Glass 4.

What exactly makes the latest version of Gorilla Glass twice as tough as other types of aluminosilicate glass is unknown; that's Corning's trade secret. But after developing new types of drop tests that better simulate how clumsy we can be with our devices, Corning's researchers improved their recipe so that when dropped face down from a height of one meter onto a hard surface, smartphones made with the new Gorilla Glass 4 will survive up to 80 percent of the time, instead of just reliably shattering on impact.

As was the case with previous versions of Gorilla Glass, the new and improved version is already en route to manufacturers which means that throughout 2015 you'll certainly be seeing it touted as a key feature as new handsets are introduced. And you'll be able to be a little more laissez-faire with your new device, and be less panicked if it accidentally takes a tumble. [Corning via Re/code]